Seoul: Korean director Yoon Dan-bi's coming-of-age film "The World Before" has been invited to screen at this year's Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the film's distributor announced. The film is set to compete in the Platform program, TIFF's only competitive section, which includes 12 films premiering worldwide.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Platform program was designed to highlight directorial voices, and this year's selection is described as an imaginative reflection of new auteur cinema. Anita Lee, chief programming officer of TIFF, emphasized the significance of the program in a separate press release on the festival's website.
"The World Before" is the second Korean film to compete in this section, following Yoon Ga-eun's "The World of Love." The story follows teenagers Jin and Doo-jae as they navigate new emotions when Doo-jae arrives on the island for his grandmother's funeral.
The film features Sim Su-bin, known for "En Route To" (2005) and Netflix's "Teach You a Lesson," as Jin, and Kim Eo-jin, from the school drama "Fragile" (2024), as Doo-jae. This film marks Yoon's second feature, after her debut "Moving On" (2019), which garnered awards at the Busan International Film Festival and an invitation to the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Yoon expressed her hopes that the film will resonate with audiences, evoking the experience of first love as a transformative journey. "The World Before" is scheduled for release in South Korea next year.